FBC Morning Light – August 5, 2022

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, a good Friday morning to you here on this, what is this, August 4th today. It was just a month ago that my wife and I, on July 4th, we were visiting some relatives in the

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Chicago area, in Villa Park, and in the middle of the day we got the news report that this crazy kid had gotten up on top of a building in Highland Park and just started opening fire on people attending an

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Independence Day parade, and killing people, injuring others.

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And in a place like Highland Park that really rippled through the communities, in the surrounding communities,

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Highland Park is on the north side of Chicago, it's one of the more affluent areas of the

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Chicago suburbs. It's not the kind of place where you would expect that kind of thing to happen.

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And it was just a few days after that, that there was another gunman that opened fire on people at a shopping mall.

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And fortunately, there was a young man with a concealed carry permit, and happened to be carrying, and he took out that gunman who was murdering innocent people.

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And we could go on. We've heard a bunch of stories like this. And you hear the political rhetoric that says, oh, well, we've got to ban all the guns.

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Well, I mean, common sense tells you that doesn't make any sense. It's the wicked people that are getting these guns and doing this.

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Banning guns from law -abiding citizens isn't going to solve the problem.

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What is the problem? Well, I don't want to go into all the deep roots of the problems, but what

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I want to do is highlight those things to emphasize our desire, our natural innate desire in a society in which we live, any society in which a

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Christian finds himself. We want to live and lead a quiet and peaceful life.

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A quiet and peaceful life. None of us likes living in the fear that, man, if I go to a parade, some nut job might kill me.

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If I go shopping at a shopping center, who knows? There might be some guy sitting out there in the parking lot in his car with his scope turned on, people just waiting to open fire.

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We don't know. We don't like living like this. We want to lead a quiet and peaceable life.

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Paul brings up that desire in 1 Timothy 2, and he says,

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I want you to do this so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.

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What is it that we must do? What we need to do is to be in prayer for those in authority over us.

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This is how he starts it off. He says, I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life.

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Pray for all men, for all people, offering supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving.

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I think the all people, just from the context here, would primarily focus on those who are in some kind of a position of authority, that they may do their job effectively.

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For example, of law enforcement officers, we can pray for them that they be kept safe and that they carry out their responsibilities effectively and thoroughly.

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We can pray for those in the judicial branch, that prosecutors would carry out the prosecutorial role and responsibility that they have so that bad people will be discouraged from pursuing their course of evil, and pray for judges that they will render just verdicts and not just send people back out on the streets, no bail and that kind of stuff, giving criminals the idea that they can do what they want to do with impunity, and pray for lawmakers, legislators, that they pass just laws.

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On and on we can go with those who are in authority, in positions of responsibility, positions that are necessary for the keeping of peace, and then for our governmental authorities, for president, congressmen, governors, state legislators, that they carry out their responsibilities with a sense of sobriety and responsibility before God.

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Really, this is how we can pray, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life.

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That's what motivates us to pray that way. But I also want you to notice here that that leading of a quiet and peaceable life is not to be totally self -absorbed.

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In other words, we don't want to lead a quiet and peaceable life just so that we are living in peace and comfort and tranquility.

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Well, certainly that's part of it. But Paul goes on to say, he says, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our

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Savior who desires all to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. In other words, we pray for and desire peace and tranquility, that we can live in godliness and reverence, so that we might have an effect, a gospel effect, on those around us.

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We don't have to be afraid of, worried about, some nut job walking into our church building and start opening fire on people and blowing people away because he doesn't like the gospel that's preached, or he doesn't like the righteousness that is preached.

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No, we want to have a quiet and peaceable life, living a life of godliness and reverence, so that we might have a gospel effect on the culture, on society, on people around us.

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So, let all of the chaos of our world motivate us to pray, and to pray, even as Paul exhorts here, for all, for kings and all who are in authority.

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So, our Father and our God, we do pray today. We pray that by your grace you would protect law enforcement officers and enable them to do their job effectively.

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May they catch criminals, may criminals be prosecuted appropriately, and may they be punished accordingly, and may those who make laws not make it easier for criminals and those who would disrupt and bring chaos to society.

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We pray, Father, for an orderly life, an orderly state, an orderly country, we pray that you would work in the lives of authorities to that end, and we ask all of this in Jesus' name.

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Amen. All right, we'll have a good rest of your Friday, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend, and encourage you on this coming

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Lord's Day to come out and gather with God's people. Let's worship the Lord together. Let's serve him on the